Metropolitan Design Center Image Bank
Over 28,000 free downloadable images. The focus of the collection is the Twin Cities metro region in Minnesota from the early 1990s through the present. Several thousand more images are being added in 2005, including many from outside Minnesota.
via Pruned — Misc

An exhibitionist museum, tower and gardens expand the notion of museum space
More on the new De Young Museum in San Francisco which opens this weekend.
via SF Gate — Misc

Brad Pitt, Frank Gehry and hot glue, baby!
"Use the hot glue gun to work on that model, Brad... perfect, love the concentration! Now, Frank, you stand over there... and tilt your head in towards Brad... very nice."
via gravestmor — Misc

Rachel Whiteread at the Tate Modern
Rachel Whiteread, "the world's leading sculptor of space," has created a work of monumental scale for the Tate's Turbine Hall. The work will be on display October 11, 2005 through April 2, 2006.
via Guardian — Misc

The De Young: not your average art-filled box
John King reviews the new De Young Museum in San Francisco designed by architects Herzog and de Meuron with landscape architect Walter Hood. Video, pictures, and more...
via SF Gate — Misc

Where Eden Could Order Its Plants
On the edge In their garden overlooking Puget Sound Dan Hinkley and Robert Jones freely combine American natives with plants found around the world.
via NY Times — Misc

Prada Marfa
Artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset have erected a sculptural piece in the form of a sealed luxury boutique in the middle of desolate ranching land with no other visible trace of civilization in sight.
via Veer — Misc

Lawn necktie
I'm not a big fan of gratuitous lawns (the green-wall-to-wall-carpet mentality)... hanging a lawn around your neck seems about right to me.
via swissmiss — Misc

Interview with Blu Dot founder John Christakos
Moco Loco features an interview with John Christakos of furniture design and manufactuering company Blu Dot.
via Moco Loco — Misc

The Peacemaker
"As he works on the landscape at the de Young museum in San Francisco, observers wonder: can Walter Hood bridge the divide between public space and in-your-face architecture?"
via Archinect — Misc

More Mies: Crown Hall in pictures and film
Back in August we posted about the re-opening of Mies van der Rohe's Crown Hall at IIT. Coudal has posted a nice page dedicated to the masterpiece featuring a film montage, still photos and links. Enjoy!
via Archidose — Misc

Save the environment: drink beer
There is a trend in beer making towards organic ingredients, sustainable brewing principles and many brewers are donating profits to worthwhile environmental causes.
via GreenBiz — Misc

Was There an L.A. School of Architecture?
"The unruly L.A. School, overlooked by the critical establishment, was in fact an incubator of ideas and thinking about urbanism." Metropolis looks at last month's SCI-Arc exhibit 'Whatever Happened to L.A.?'
via Metropolis — Misc

Not A Cornfield
Pruned talks about artist Lauren Bon's "living sculpture" near downtown Los Angeles on a 32 acre brownfield site known as "The Cornfield" which slated for a future park.
via Pruned — Misc

The fantastic disappearing plastic, just add water
Australian company Plantic has developed a plastic product made of 90 percent corn starch and a number of other organic materials, including water, fatty acid and oil. When water is applied it actually disappears (not just dissolves) releasing water
via w-m-m-n-a — Misc

Ahead of the curve
Straight lines are out, sloping walls are in. Jonathan Glancey reviews the Zaha Hadid designed Ordrupgaard Museum in Denmark.
via Guardian — Misc

The Afterlife of Environmentalism
In an article published in The American Prospect, John Meyer follows up on the 'death of environmentalism' by offering 'the afterlife of environmentalism'.
via Planetizen — Misc

In a Brooklyn Bayou
An interesting story about a displaced New Orleans architecture firm: the staff of Ledbetter Fullerton Architects, displaced by Katrina, is living and working in a vacant assisted living center in Brooklyn.
via NY Times — Misc

Eastern blocks
Moscow has one solution for its decaying constructivist housing: demolition. But who will save these avant garde masterpieces? The Guardian tracks down the city's last utopian architecture. Don't miss the small link for "More photographs" under the p
via Guardian — Misc

Scrapile Interviewed
We have featured the work of Brooklyn furniture company Scrapile a couple times, first back in December 2004. Jill over at Inhabitat recently caught up with Carlos Salgado and Bart Bettencourt, the guys behind Scrapile.
via Inhabitat — Misc

Building Industry Growing Ever Greener?
"Like mom and apple pie, everyone professes love for green buildings. But because there's big money at stake for whoever gets the stamp of approval, there's keen financial interest in the definition of green."
via GreenBiz — Misc

Arch angels
Sydney's young architects.
via SMH — Misc

Google Earth + National Geographic
A new layer of information applied to our beloved Google Earth. Very nice.
via Future Feeder — Misc

Courts with a new spark
Calendar Live takes a look at the courtyard housing typology in California and talks with our good friends at Moule & Polyzoides.
via LA Times — Misc

NIH Prescribes Healing Gardens
The custom of bringing flowers to the sick is part of a centuries-old belief that it is possible to create a healing environment. But what if instead of bringing blooms to the patient, you brought the patient to the blooms?
via Washington Post — Misc